Ohio couple sells sweets to help daughter, others

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Aisha Fraser Mason points to the dining room of her home in Cleveland.

"This is the chocolate factory," said the president of Audrey's Chocolates.

The dining room table is covered with aluminum foil for easy cleanup when the hot gooey substance -- also known as the food of gods -- is poured into molds.

Two tempering machines, used to turn raw chocolate into a substance with a smooth texture and a glossy shine, are nearby. Four deep freezers for holding both the raw chocolate and the finished delights are stationed throughout the house: one in the living room, two in the kitchen and one in the basement. Each has a temperature override device setting the freezers at 55 degrees, an environment in which chocolate is happiest.

This time last year, the dining room was where Aisha, her husband, Lance Mason, and their girls, Audrey, 5, and Ava, 2, had meals. Then one day Lance, a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judge, was channel surfing and stumbled upon a show about making chocolate. Soon, being a devoted viewer wasn't enough. He had to learn how to make the confection. When the class he signed up for was canceled for lack of enrollees, he paid a chocolatier to give him individual lessons.

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Lance got so good at making candy that Aisha began peddling the sweets. In a matter of months, demand has become so high that they know the dining room soon won't be a big enough factory. They will have to hire another chocolatier if they are to meet the increasing orders.

The Masons recently discussed whether they could squeeze another freezer into their small house. A 75-pound order of raw chocolate was on its way, and the couple debated whether they would be able to clear enough space in the existing freezers to house it.

The company bears the name of the couple's older daughter, who has Down syndrome. They are using the profits to pay for enrichments, including learning tools, tutoring and speech therapy.

"Without the interventions, I don't know where she would be because she wasn't even able to sit up," Lance said. "She has made so much progress. She jumps, she runs and she reads."

Dad pulled out a book and pointed to vocabulary words. Audrey eagerly read them.

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"Fish," she said. "Puppet. Castle. Submarine."

Her father smiled.

"It is really miraculous to me," he said. "We want to be in a situation where we can help people who are similarly situated."

Audrey's Chocolates also is a social entrepreneurial venture, meaning that its mission and profits are focused on a social cause. In this case, the goal is to eventually employ people living with disabilities and to use profits to support research and programs for people with special needs.

Lance remembers when Audrey was born. The doctors said hers would be a life of dependency and she probably wouldn't live past 40.

"I think of my daughter, and I don't accept the limitations people have placed on her," he said. "We want to create a business where she can run it one day or be in a position to have a significant role in it."

Aisha said she initially believed the business would gradually build like many home-based startups their founders run as a sideline. First they would sell to family and friends. As word got out, business would grow. Within a few years, they would open a storefront.

But things have moved so quickly, 2013 will probably be a year of monumental decisions, the Masons said.

The online business has taken off. Will they focus on that or opening a storefront? So far, they have financed the startup from personal savings. Is it time to think about taking on the risk of commercial loans? What is the best way to juggle being entrepreneurs, raising two small children and holding full-time jobs? Aisha teaches in Shaker Heights.

Last summer, Audrey's Chocolates was in the planning stages when Aisha got an invitation to participate in The Republic of Artists, a marketplace held four times a year featuring handmade and hard-to-find items. She told founder Kimberley Osborne-Milstein to contact a friend who makes stationery to participate.

"Kim said, 'You need to be in the market!'" Aisha recalled.

"But we were so NOT ready!" Lance added.

If this would be the official launch, they would have to design boxes. They came up with the pink and brown polka dot design based on one of Audrey's raincoats. Now they had to find someone to make the boxes and inserts. There were bags and stickers to order.

It seemed that each time they checked an item off their list, another popped up.

"It was overwhelming," Lance said. "I told my wife, 'Call her and tell her we are not going to do the show.' "

But everything managed to come together for the September event.

The first day of the show, they sold out of 500 pieces of candy in a matter of hours, many with names as delectable as the taste. Their milk chocolate selections include Caramel Dream with Nuts. Candy Apple Delight is among the white chocolate offerings, and Tender Hearted Salted Caramel is a dark chocolate favorite.

Lance was up most of the night making chocolates to sell at the marketplace the next day. Aisha packed the boxes.

After the event, Aisha, a former information-technology consultant for Ernst & Young, included an online sales component for her businesses' website, as well as a mobile app, to meet the demands for reorders. Selling out became the norm at other bazaars and events they would attend during the next several months. For example, at the December Republic of Artists marketplace, they tripled sales from September.

The couple had believed they would one day be entrepreneurs, especially Lance, whose mother had impressed upon him from childhood going into business for himself.

But a business in which Lance would be a chocolatier?

"Mind you, before this, my husband could only boil water," Aisha said. "Going into making gourmet chocolates was a big step."

Lance said he perfected his chocolate-making skills by having his bailiff, law clerk and others at the courthouse sample the treats. He said they didn't hesitate to give a thumbs-down. If they did, Lance didn't hesitate to go back to the ol' chocolate factory drawing board to revise recipes or come up with new ones.

He said even friends he had known for years couldn't believe his chocolates would taste good. Lance offered them samples.